Impecunious and humble commentator on global financial issues. Deeply and irrevocably commited to City of London.

TODAY’S FAYRE – US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FEARS

“Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn,
Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun,
What strenuous singles we played after tea,
We in the tournament – you against me!

Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won,
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

Her father’s euonymus shines as we walk,
And swing past the summer-house, buried in talk,
And cool the verandah that welcomes us in
To the six-o’clock news and a lime-juice and gin.

The scent of the conifers, sound of the bath,
The view from my bedroom of moss-dappled path,
As I struggle with double-end evening tie,
For we dance at the Golf Club, my victor and I.

On the floor of her bedroom lie blazer and shorts,
And the cream-coloured walls are be-trophied with sports,
And westering, questioning settles the sun,
On your low-leaded window, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

The Hillman is waiting, the light’s in the hall,
The pictures of Egypt are bright on the wall,
My sweet, I am standing beside the oak stair
And there on the landing’s the light on your hair.

By roads “not adopted”, by woodlanded ways,
She drove to the club in the late summer haze,
Into nine-o’clock Camberley, heavy with bells
And mushroomy, pine-woody, evergreen smells.

Around us are Rovers and Austins afar,
Above us the intimate roof of the car,
And here on my right is the girl of my choice,
With the tilt of her nose and the chime of her voice.

And the scent of her wrap, and the words never said,
And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”

John Betjeman – poet Laureate – 1906-1984

As I am about to start a long weekend today I thought I might vent my spleen, my frustration and lack of comprehension on the current political scene in the US – It is fair to say my in-depth knowledge on the subject you could probably be put on my thumb nails! – Nonetheless I think there is a correlation between what happened in the UK at the time of the last General Election and in June’s EU Referendum and maybe what could happen in the US this coming November!

The likes of the FT and the Guardian – massive ‘REMAIN’ supporters – still don’t get what the electorate told them on 23rd June – the day logic may have drifted out of the window, unless you were an impassioned BREXITEER as I was! The quiet majority had become increasingly tired of being lectured to or bullied by the establishment and Westminster, coupled with the gap between those that have and those that have not having widened by the year. These ‘down-trodden’ folk feel that this situation has become intolerable since 2009, despite the fact that economy was in good shape with unemployment having fallen by record amounts. Too many failed to improve their own lot in their personal lives and ambitions. If the truth be told the result to leave the EU had little to do with the pros/cons of EU membership. It was to do with social injustice.

At the 2015 general election many more of the electorate voted Conservative than the pollster had forecasted without admitting to their decision beforehand. Why? Ed Miliband came across as weak and incapable of digging the disenchanted out of their personal economic mire. Could the same unexpected result transpire from November’s US election? It might be folly to rule that prospect out. Many observers are astonished that out of 314 million people the only two Presidential candidates the Democrats and the GOP for the 2016 Election were two most unpopular politicians to vie for residency in Pennsylvania Avenue in decades – Hillary Rodham Clinton and the extraordinarily unorthodox Donald Trump. After this week’s rhetoric on guns, the 2nd amendment et cetera one might be forgiven for thinking Donald Trump’s ‘goose was cooked’ and that his comments were increasingly beyond the pale. I don’t think so!

To date Hillary Clinton’s campaign has spent $52 million on TV advertising. So far Trump has spent nothing! He does not need to! Why? The media is doing a fabulous job for him. In his view there is no such thing as bad publicity. On Twitter Trump has just 10 million followers and only follows 45 people! Most of the comments placed on Twitter are denials, protestations and tough criticisms of the media, with a particular dislike of CNN, which has always covered US Presidential elections more comprehensively than most. My concern is the more the media accuse Trump of lying, the more his followers just don’t care. They are just not interested. Their contempt for the establishment, Wall Street, the Bush and Clinton dynasties seem to know no bounds. The silent majority is desperate and ‘hell-bent’ on change. This election outcome will be much closer than many believe and this old bird would not be remotely surprised if Trump became the 45th President of the USA! I hope I’m wrong but stranger things have happened